“Sinister Wisdom” with Julie Enszer

Meet Julie Enszer, editor of Sinister Wisdom, dyke poetry superstar, and protector of the lesbian archives. Julie and I speak about shared queer cultures, lesbian feminist publishing, and all of the amazing queer archiving projects Julie is involved in. We also speak about the importance of sharing knowledge and practices of resistance, especially at a time like the present moment. Since Julie is particularly invested in sharing these practices internationally, she is part of the team that is bringing the Lesbian Lives conference to New York in October 2025… Tune in for the details.  

References:
https://julierenszer.com/
Sinister Wisdom 
https://www.sinisterwisdom.org/
@sinister_wisom (IG)
Julie Enszer’s The Pinko Commie Dyke (Indolent Books, 2024) with illustrations by Isabel Clare Paul
OutWrite: The Speeches that Shaped LGBTQ Literary Culture (ed. Julie Enszer and Elena Gross, Rutgers UP, 2022)
The Complete Works of Pat Parkers (ed. Julie Enszer, Sinister Wisdom/A Midsummer Night’s Press, 2016)
Fire-Rimmed Eden: Selected Poems by Lynn Lonidier (ed. Julie Enszer, Sinister Wisdom, 2023)
Sinister Wisdom 128: Trans/Feminisms
Reveal Digital Archives
https://about.jstor.org/revealdigital/
The Lesbian Poetry Archive 
http://lesbianpoetryarchive.org/
Feminist Bookstore News Archive
https://www.lesbianpoetryarchive.org/fbn
Carol Seajay
Women in Print Movement
Catherine Nicholson
Harriet Desmoines
Hillary Clinton
Lesbian Lives Conference
Ella Ben Hagai
The Journal of Lesbian Studies
Olu Jenzen
CLAGS (The Centre for LGBTQ Studies, CUNY)
https://www.gc.cuny.edu/clags-center-lgbtq-studies
Matt Brim
Grace Nichols’ The Fat Black Woman’s Poems
Heresies
http://heresiesfilmproject.org/archive/
Cheryl Clarke
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/cheryl-clarke
Tim Retzloff
https://michiganlgbtqremember.com/842-2/
Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home
Marilyn Hacker’s Love, Death and the Changing of the Seasons (1986)  

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
1.      How do we build lesbian and feminist communities? Which examples does Julie give?
2.      What are the Reveal Digital Archives?
3.      What types of writing does Sinister Wisdom publish and what would Julie like to see more of? In which year was the journal launched?
4.      How does Julie describe the importance of lesbian archives?
5.      How might archives help us with lesbian, queer and trans oganising?